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A collection of advanced strategies to improve your video poker game (online and casino). Video poker essentials and Jacks or higher video poker strategy card.
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Video Poker Strategy
A collection of advanced strategies to improve your video poker game. Beginners should visit the how to play video poker page. Standard poker hand rankings are also available.
Video Poker Essentials
Video poker is an easy game to play. it is not so easy to master. Unlike slots a basic understanding of video poker will give you the edge and will result in a long term advantage, meaning, dollars in the pocket of the smart video poker player. Many professional gamblers now target video poker and the reason is simple. You can win. There is no secret or magic system. Just common sense and a little understanding of the game.
There are many variations of video poker around. You just cannot go to an unfamiliar game and expect to win big in a few hands. Video poker is not by any means a mindless game!
Video Poker Basics
Video poker is a high payout game with many casinos offering 100% plus payouts. How can they do that? The reason is simple. Casinos rely on player error in video poker. Basically, you make mistakes and the casino wins. How do you avoid this?
The answer is in perfect play. I remind you this is not a system, but grounded in mathematical common sense. For every video poker game type there is a particular way to play to your maximum advantage. There are over 20 popular video poker game types and this can be confusing to the beginner. All share the same principle of video poker. You bet, you are dealt your hand (usually 5 cards) and you decide to hold and discard certain cards.
What do I hold and what do I discard in video poker? Good question! It depends entirely on the game you are playing. let us start with the grand daddy of video poker, Jacks or Better (aka JoB) and the easiest to learn. With Jacks or Better (and any video poker game) the first thing is to look at the paytables.
Strategy Card
The strategy card will list a number of poker hands from top to bottom. To use video poker strategy cards, fire up your game and take a look at the hand you've been dealt. Start comparing this hand to the hands on the strategy card, starting from the top, working your way down. The highest hand on the list that matches the hand that you have, are the cards you should keep. Keep the combination of cards that match the strategy card listing, discard the rest, and you've just used your professional video poker strategy! Now, practice makes perfect, so you can learn to make each decision without referencing your strategy card.
The perfect game to start practicing your first proper video poker strategy is full-pay Jacks or Better. It has a very straightforward strategy and shouldn't leave you with many questions.
Quotation
"Interestingly, a player with a perfect strategy can, over the long term, actually make a modest profit on certain video poker games in Las Vegas casinos and elsewhere, which typically have no limits on play and feature expected returns of more than 100 percent. Jackpots occur, on average, about once every 40,000 games. So, in the short term, a player must be prepared to go deep into debt before earning back any initial losses. However, even using a flawless strategy and playing continuously for 40 hours per week, a player would earn no more than minimum wage. It's possible to boost the return, however, by playing on a machine that offers several hands simultaneously. "
From "Quirky Video Poker" by Ivars Peterson
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